1. Field
Some embodiments of the invention relate generally to computer systems and particularly to computer systems that provide services for exchanging digital information, such as email services, social network services, and electronic commerce services.
2. Description of the Related Art
An individual's life is increasing more digital. For example, an individual will likely communicate with friends and family using email services, will create online personas using social network services, will engage in electronic commerce transactions using electronic commerce services, and engage in other digital services. In order to utilize such digital services, a user must provide information to various digital service providers, such as a name, email address, physical address, password, and credit card number. In addition, the user may provide other types of information, such as documents, images, and other electronic files, to the digital service providers, with the purpose of sharing the information with other individuals, using one or more digital services. The amount of information provided to digital service providers can be vast, due to the number of digital service providers that an individual can interact with, and due to the amount of the information a user may be required (or may desire) to provide to each digital service provider. Management of this vast amount of information can be extremely challenging to an individual, as there is generally no central mechanism for managing such a large amount of information. Further, such information is generally retained by the digital service providers, and can be vulnerable to mining and exploitation.
The difficulty of managing such information can be further increased when the individual dies, or is otherwise incapacitated. This is because the individual is generally reluctant to share this information with, or provide access to the information to, other individuals, due to a fear that the information will be compromised. Further, an individual is generally reluctant to envision a scenario where he/she is dead and incapacitated due to the discomfort associated with envisioning such a scenario. Thus, the individual is unlikely to provide instructions to friends and family on how to manage the information provided to the digital service providers in light of the individual's death or incapacitation. The lack of access and/or instructions can significantly increase the difficulty of managing the information in the event of the individual's death or incapacitation, as it is generally difficult or impossible for the individual's friends or family members to recover such information from the various service providers without the explicit authorization of the individual.